Penguin paintings in watercolor

After doing the fox circle paintings, I wanted to do something similar with penguins...



















I think these also came out pretty cute :)  I love baby penguins...they're all fluffy and awkward. Here are my sketches beforehand:

 Some detail:






















I think I prefer this look for the sky:

Yay penguins!

Finishing old projects: decoupage boxes

Recently I've been doing a lot of cleaning projects...and in the process, I found a bunch of old craft projects in need of finishing. Last night I knocked out two decoupage pieces: a set of drawers that would make a great jewelry box, and a shadowbox frame (courtesy of IKEA, of course).

I've been using a crap abridged illustrated copy of The Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty that I cut up and glue in pieces...for these two projects I was using just the text, no illustrated pages.

I love the look of black & white lately and have been wearing a lot of black/white/gray...no surprise that this theme continues here. It's sort of a wintry look :P

Sometimes I like to collage the book pages in small pieces for a patchwork effect, but for the drawers on this I wanted to use one solid piece of text...which was a pain in the butt (particularly with the little drawer knobs), but I like how it turned out.

More book ruining later, perhaps...

materials: IKEA wooden shadowbox frame, wooden mini dresser, black acrylic craft paint, books, Plaid Royal Coat Decoupage Finish in 1401 Clear.

Holiday happenings

This year, I spent Christmas Eve baking cookies and pizza with my brother...mmm pizza...

 

 

...and then a few days visiting with friends. I went to visit Gleb and we ambled through downtown Ambler and did a little shopping.

 

And even though the holidays were over, the owl ornaments were not! I made a large batch....most of these are now available in my etsy shop.

Placemats, snow, birdies, and boredom!

I have decided that being sick is really boring. The snow seems to be melting, so I'm not really snowed in...but I still have a bad sore throat and probably shouldn't go anywhere.

However, I have managed to do lots of cleaning, sorting, and crafty things. Here are the latest pics:

More ribbon placemats! I finished 6 of these last night.

Also, cut more felt shapes for heart pins...

And here's a look at the snow. Most of it has melted around here, although we didn't get hit as hard as other parts of MD.

Here's Tiny's impressive batch of eggs. Well, several batches. She has 18 eggs currently and I suspect another is on the way. Poor baby.

 Here she is...she was annoyed with me for taking pictures of the eggs.

New pins up on etsy!

I just put a few of my new embroidered pins up in my etsy shop...go take a look!

Also, pictures of several new octopus purses coming soon! The octopi have been stitched on and I'm currently picking out lining fabrics.

Seattle shopping extravaganza

We discovered some great places to shop in downtown Seattle...as well as (surprisingly) a great gift shop in our hotel. Also made a quick trip to the outlets and picked up some good stuff there.

Warm & cozy stuff for the winter! Furry vest: Gap Outlet. Leather gloves: Fini. Socks: Free People. Wood rounds coasters: The Country Store at Salish Lodge & Spa.

I fell in love with this coat, even though I already have at least a dozen coats. It's super soft (not wool!) and has a great silhouette, plus lots of fun zippers! Coat: Free People. Shawl: The Country Store at Salish Lodge & Spa.

Carved wooden frame/wall art: Thailand Junkie. Birds flour sack dish towel: Watson Kennedy. Greeting cards: The Country Store at Salish Lodge & Spa.

Some very cool (and mostly bird-themed) finds from Snoqualmie and Seattle, WA. Sweater: Gap Outlet. Birds flour sack dish towel: Watson Kennedy. Footie slippers: Free People. Metal chicken tray, greeting cards, chickadee figurine, and chickadee mini plate: The Country Store at Salish Lodge & Spa.

Yay for awesome shopping!